Apparatus and method for sending video content to a mobile device

ABSTRACT

An apparatus and method for sending video content to a mobile device is described. According to one embodiment, a computer-implemented method comprising embedding a widget in a website, the widget generating a form. The form is provided when a user visits the website so as to execute the widget. The form includes a first field to enter a recipient phone number, a send selector, and one or more non-visible fields, the non-visible fields containing a content service provider identifier, and a video URL. A data packet is generated with the widget when the user selects the send selector, the data packet including the recipient phone number, the video URL, and the content service provider identifier. An encoded version of the data packet is sent to the content service provider and a video link message is sent to the recipient phone number.

FIELD

The field of the invention relates generally to computer systems andmore particularly relates to an apparatus and method for sending videocontent to a mobile device.

BACKGROUND

Wireless mobile phones became so popular that more than 80 percent ofAmericans subscribe to at least one type of wireless service. Mobilephones are compact in size but powerful in features and functions. Forexample, most mobile phones are equipped with a digital camera and theusers can easily take a snap shot or video without needing to carry aseparate camera.

As picture-taking with mobile phones gains popularity along with thedevelopment of Internet technology, mobile users can easily store,access, maintain and share their digital pictures on a Web site fromtheir mobile phones. However, the software running on a mobile user'sphone may not be adequate for Internet access or may only supportspecific multimedia formats for viewing on the mobile phone. The defaultbrowser available on mobile phones varies with the mobile phonemanufacturer and the mobile service carrier. To make it worse, thosemobile phones may not be equipped with a proper browser to access andview multimedia files available on various Web sites on the Internet.For ease of sharing multimedia files of various formats and enhancedaccessibility, there is a need for streamlining the delivery process ofmultimedia files for mobile users.

SUMMARY

A method and system for sending video content to a mobile device isdescribed. An apparatus and method for sending video content to a mobiledevice is described. According to one embodiment, a computer-implementedmethod comprising embedding a widget in a website, the widget generatinga form. The form is provided when a user visits the website so as toexecute the widget. The form includes a first field to enter a recipientphone number, a send selector, and one or more non-visible fields, thenon-visible fields containing a content service provider identifier, anda video URL. A data packet is generated with the widget when the userselects the send selector, the data packet including the recipient phonenumber, the video URL, and the content service provider identifier. Anencoded version of the data packet is sent to the content serviceprovider and a video link message is sent to the recipient phone number.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included as part of the presentspecification, illustrate the presently preferred embodiment of thepresent invention and together with the general description given aboveand the detailed description of the preferred embodiment given belowserve to explain and teach the principles of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary send-to-mobile (STM) system,according to one embodiment;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary STM information entry form, according toone embodiment;

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary STM result messages, according to oneembodiment;

and

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process for providing a STM service,according to one embodiment.

It should be noted that the figures are not necessarily drawn to scaleand that elements of similar structures or functions are generallyrepresented by like reference numerals for illustrative purposesthroughout the figures. It also should be noted that the figures areonly intended to facilitate the description of the various embodimentsdescribed herein. The figures do not describe every aspect of theteachings disclosed herein and do not limit the scope of the claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An apparatus and method for dynamically providing web-based multimediato a mobile phone are described. An apparatus and method for sendingvideo content to a mobile device is described. According to oneembodiment, a computer-implemented method comprising embedding a widgetin a website, the widget generating a form. The form is provided when auser visits the website so as to execute the widget. The form includes afirst field to enter a recipient phone number, a send selector, and oneor more non-visible fields, the non-visible fields containing a contentservice provider identifier, and a video URL. A data packet is generatedwith the widget when the user selects the send selector, the data packetincluding the recipient phone number, the video URL, and the contentservice provider identifier. An encoded version of the data packet issent to the content service provider and a video link message is sent tothe recipient phone number.

Each of the features and teachings disclosed herein can be utilizedseparately or in conjunction with other features and teachings toprovide a method and system for sending a video content to a mobiledevice. Representative examples utilizing many of these additionalfeatures and teachings, both separately and in combination, aredescribed in further detail with reference to the attached drawings.This detailed description is merely intended to teach a person of skillin the art further details for practicing preferred aspects of thepresent teachings and is not intended to limit the scope of the claims.Therefore, combinations of features disclosed in the following detaileddescription may not be necessary to practice the teachings in thebroadest sense, and are instead taught merely to describe particularlyrepresentative examples of the present teachings.

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, specificnomenclature is set forth to facilitate an understanding of the variousinventive concepts disclosed herein. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that these specific details are not required in orderto practice the various inventive concepts disclosed herein.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general-purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in acomputer-readable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, anytype of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories, random access memories,EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any type of mediasuitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupled to acomputer system bus.

The methods presented herein are not inherently related to anyparticular computer or other apparatus. Various general-purpose systemsmay be used with programs in accordance with the teachings herein, or itmay prove convenient to construct more specialized apparatus to performthe required method steps. The required structure for a variety of thesesystems will appear from the description below. In addition, the presentinvention is not described with reference to any particular programminglanguage. It will be appreciated that a variety of programming languagesmay be used to implement the teachings of the invention as describedherein.

Moreover, the various features of the representative examples and thedependent claims may be combined in ways that are not specifically andexplicitly enumerated in order to provide additional useful embodimentsof the present teachings. It is also expressly noted that all valueranges or indications of groups of entities disclose every possibleintermediate value or intermediate entity for the purpose of originaldisclosure, as well as for the purpose of restricting the claimedsubject matter. It is also expressly noted that the dimensions and theshapes of the components shown in the figures are designed to help tounderstand how the present teachings are practiced, but not intended tolimit the dimensions and the shapes shown in the examples.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an exemplary send-to-mobile (STM) system,according to one embodiment. STM system 100 includes a user 101, afriend 110, a content provider 120 and a video service provider 130.Communications between user 101, content provider 120 and video serviceprovider 130 are sent via network 140 while friend 110 is reachable viaa wireless network 160. According to one embodiment, a user 101 views avideo clip at the content provider 120's website using his or her mobilephone (101 a) or PC (101 b). The STM system 100 allows the user 101 toshare the video clip with a friend 110 by sending a text message (e.g.,an SMS (short message service) or an MMS (multimedia messaging service)message). The SMS/MMS message is created at user 101's request by thevideo service provider 130. The SMS/MMS message is sent to a phonenumber that provided by user 101. The SMS/MMS message includes a link tothe video clip. The friend 110 receives the text message with a uniformresource locator (URL) link and clicks on the URL link to view the videoclip on his/her mobile phone 110 a using a WAP, GPRS, or WiFi connectionto the Internet.

According to one embodiment, network 140 is a high-speed broadbandnetwork, a Public Switched Telephony Network (PSTN), a Local AreaNetwork (LAN), a Wide Area Network (WAN), an Integrated Services DigitalNetwork (ISDN) or any other type of network that enables two or moredevices to exchange information. Furthermore, network 140 may be inwhole or in part a Wireless Area Network (WAN), such that user 101 andfriend 110 may use wireless devices, cellular phones, PDAs, or any othertype of wireless communication devices.

Switching may occur from one network to another within network 140, butis not exhaustively explained for simplicity. For example, if user 101views a video clip on content provider 120's website on his or hermobile phone 101 a, the wireless network of user 101's mobile servicecarrier delivers communication packets to and from user 101 and routesthem to a wired network that is connected to the Internet that connectsto the content provider 120's Web server.

In one embodiment, there is more than one friend 110 to whom user 101sends requests to share a video clip via video service provider 130. Inanother embodiment, user 101 may send a request to himself/herself forviewing or sharing the video clip later on his/her mobile phone 101 a.In this case, user 101 and friend 110 are the same person. It is notedthat user 101 and friend 110 are represented as individual networkentities who benefit from the STM system 100. According to anotherembodiment, user 101 may at one time use PC 101 b to send a STM requestand later use mobile phone 101 a to view the video clip. User 101 orfriend 110 may subscribe the STM service provided by content provider120. In this case, when new video content is available, additional STMmessages are sent to the subscribers to notify the arrival of the newvideo content.

Video service provider 130 is equipped with a database 131 and a fileserver 132 to store and manage numerous video clips. Database 131 may beof any type, for example, a relational database, a distributed filesystem, a Redundant Array of Independent Drive (RAID), a NetworkAttached Storage (NAS), or a storage devices. Database 131 may alsorefer to the contents or files available on the Internet or network 140.

Fileserver 132 may be a file server or any file storage devices; forexample, a distributed file system, Redundant Array of IndependentDrives (RAIDs), a Network Attached Storage (NAS), or any other type ofstorage devices.

In one embodiment, video service provider 130 is equipped with messagingserver 133 for sending text messages to friend 110. The text messagingsystem may be a native media messaging system such as SMS and MMS, or acarrier-provided transport mechanism such as “Picture Mail.”

Content provider 120 provides a Web service for viewing video content.Content provider 120 provides a video-viewing experience along withother value-added services to users. Content provider 120, however, mayonly support a limited number of video formats. Sometimes, certain videoformats require a particular video content player having a particulardecoder in order to play the video clips. If the video clips are encodedwith a video format that the user's mobile phone does not support, theuser may not be able to view the video clips or will need to download aplayer that supports the video format. This is particularly troublesomefor mobile users when his/her mobile phone is equipped with only adefault browser that does not support a particular video format or doesnot allow for easy software upgrades.

To provide the STM service to users, content provider 120 first embeds asoftware widget called “STM initiator” in content provider 120'swebsite. The STM initiator may be obtained preconfigured via aself-service registration system on video service provider 130's websiteor via professional services from video service provider 130.Alternatively, the STM initiator may be obtained unconfigured as asimple piece of embeddable code, which content provider 120 mayconfigure internally. When user 101 selects a video clip on the contentprovider 120's website to share with friend 110, the STM initiatorcollects information about the video clip and forwards that informationto the video service provider 130. The STM initiator allows user 101 toinitiate the exchange of data between content provider 120 and videoservice provider 130. The STM initiator also collects, packages data andtransfers the packaged data therebetween. The STM initiator isconfigured to include an identification of the content provider 120 andthe location of the video clip, etc. The accessibility of the video clipis controlled by content provider 120 based on the agreement betweencontent provider 120 and video service provider 130.

The STM initiator also provides a user interface to user 101 when arequest to share the video clip is submitted. When the request is sentfrom a Web page on content provider 120, video service provider 130identifies the location of the video clip as the STM initiator forwardsinformation used to locate the video clip. According to one embodiment,the STM initiator forwards a simple URL including parameters to locatethe video clip on content provider 120's Web server.

In one embodiment, the STM initiator is configured via a self-serviceWeb interface on video service provider 130's website. In anotherembodiment, the STM initiator is manually configured by the contentprovider or video service provider 130, or automatically configured by ascript program or a software application. For a content provider 120that has numerous video clips created by its users, the automaticconfiguration is a preferred way of configuration for implementing theSTM initiators in numerous user-created Web pages.

Once successfully embedded into a Web page containing a video clip on acontent provider 120's Web page, the STM initiator creates a link or aselectable object to forward the request of user 101. For example, aclickable button with the words, “send to mobile” is created on the Webpage below the embedded video clip. Alternatively, a clickable menu popsup when clicking on the right mouse button while hovering the mousecursor over the video clip. These linking or selectable objects mayinclude a URL, a graphical data object such as a JPEG or an embedded SWFfile. It is understood that many other forms or objects may beconsidered to implement the STM initiator without deviating from thescope of the present invention.

When user 101 clicks on the “send to mobile” button, a data packet thatincludes the information about the video clip is transmitted to thevideo service provider 130 in a particular format, for example, as anHTTP post request. The video clip is then downloaded by video serviceprovider 130 using the protocol and method configured into the STMinitiator. In one embodiment, the video clip is downloaded from contentprovider 120 to video service provider 130 via HTTP using a URLtransmitted by the STM initiator. The video clip may be encoded in thecontent provider 120's preferred video format. In one embodiment, thevideo format may not be supported or may not be preferred by videoservice provider 130. In such cases, a format conversion may occurwithin video service provider 130 to convert the received data packet toa different format. No knowledge of the content provider 120's videoformat is required. After receiving the fully configured data packet,i.e. the data packet containing both the friend's phone number and theidentity of the video clip, video service provider 130 aggregates theinformation to take the next course of actions to further the deliveryof the video clip to the designated friend 110.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary STM information entry form, according toone embodiment. Before or after user 101 clicks on the “send to mobile”button 204, user 101 is prompted with STM information entry form 200 tofill in information for using the STM service. STM information entryform 200 gathers the information about a sender (i.e. user 101) and arecipient (i.e. friend 110) such as the sender's phone number (201), therecipient's phone number (202) and an optional message (203). STMinformation entry form 200 may be customized to include additionalinformation such as rating classification (e.g., PG13 or R) or thelicense information of the video clip. The STM information entry form200 may be further customized to include a check box allowing the userto subscribe to content provider 120's service. In this case, therecipient's phone number 202 will receive additional text messages asnew content becomes available on content provider 120's website. Therecipient's phone number 202 is used to send a text message 154including the optional message 203. The STM initiator may further addnon-visible fields to the entry form 200 to identify the contentprovider 120 via its partner code, according to one embodiment.

After completing the STM information entry form 200, user 101 clicks onthe “send” button 204 to complete the STM request. The user's “send”action creates a data packet including the sender's and recipient'sphone numbers as provided in the STM information entry form 200 and thedata packet is transmitted to video service provider 130. The datapacket is supplemented with the information about the video clip and thepartner code that is already gathered by the STM initiator. According toone embodiment, the information containing the sender's and recipient'sphone numbers and the information about the video clip might arrive atvideo service provider 130 in separate data packets at different time.In such cases, video service provider 130 associates the two datapackets to create a single STM request.

The successfully submission of the user's STM request is confirmed byone or more STM result messages that are sent to the user from videoservice provider 130. The STM result messages affirm the sender's “sendto mobile” action, and notify that the video clip is available on videoservice provider 130's website and that a mobile message containing alink to the video clip will be sent to the designated recipient.

FIG. 3 illustrates exemplary STM result messages, according to oneembodiment. According to one embodiment, user 101 receives three STMresult messages after submitting an STM request. Message 301 is sent touser 101 when user 101 uses the STM service for the first time. User 101conveniently locates a video clip on a content provider 120's Web sitebut does not know that such a service is provided by video serviceprovider 130 since the STM initiator is embedded in the content provider120's Web site. For the same reason, user 101 does not have to go visitthe video service provider 130's Web site for instructions to use theSTM service. The STM service is provided interactively with intuitivesteps, so that users are not required to have specific knowledge abouttext messaging, video formats or video players. After the first use ofthe STM service, user 101 receives a welcoming message 301 from videoservice provider 130. Friend 110 also receives a welcoming message 301when accessing a video clip from a received text message from videoservice provider 130 for the first time.

Message 302 informs user 101 that a new channel (e.g. chanX4081234567)is created to link the video clip that user 101 provided. The channel isused either by user 101 and friend 110 for viewing the video clip.Later, the channel may be used to contain links to more video clips ifuser 101 or friend 110 adds those video clips to the original video clipthat they already shared on the channel. In one embodiment, video clipsstored on a channel might be collected from more than one contentproviders 120.

Message 303 is provided to user 101 or friend 110 to provide a link tothe video clip for viewing on their mobile phones 101 a or 110 a. Thethird message 303 may include an optional link to download content otherthan the video clip such as a mobile application, an advertisement or avideo player.

STM partner interface is a Web service provided by video serviceprovider 130 to content provider 120 including the STM information entryform 200 shown in FIG. 2. The information supplied in the STMinformation entry form 200 is encoded and forwarded to video serviceprovider 130 when user 101 clicks the “send” button 204. The receivedinformation on video service provider 130 is then decoded, and the datarequired to process the STM request is extracted: a partner code, theURL for the requested video clip, sender's and recipient's phone numbersand the optional message that user 101 may have provided in the STMinformation entry form 200.

According to one embodiment, the STM partner interface determines themobile service provider for each phone number provided in the STMinformation entry form 200. The mobile service provider may be found bylooking up an internal database containing phone number and mobile phonecarrier pairs, by looking up an external phone number database, or froma phone number/carrier matching service. The phone number/carriermatching service hosts a database for mobile service providers and theirsubscriber's phone numbers and provides an interface to find a matchingmobile service provider for a given phone number.

According to one embodiment, the STM partner interface identifies aphone number and further determines the manufacturer and the model ofthe mobile phone. The information may be provided by the mobile serviceprovider or available to video service provider 130 while searching forthe mobile service provider using a phone number. The additionalinformation about the mobile phone is helpful in identifying thesoftware version of the mobile phone.

After all the information required to locate the video clip and therecipient's phone number, the STM partner interface sends a request todownload the video clip indicated by the URL. If the video clip haspreviously been downloaded or is already available on database 131, astored copy is used instead. An advanced searching process may beadapted to perform a database search based on multiple parameters suchas the title, the size, the author and the playing time of the videoclip. A duplicate copy or a slight variation of the video clip may bedeleted to save storage space in database 131. When downloading thevideo clip from content provider 120, video service provider 130 mayreceive an additional custom message from content provider 120. Forexample, if content provider 120 rewards video service provider 130financially based on the number of STM requests, i.e. each request iscounted for a fee basis, the counter data might be additionally providedalong with the time and date, and the IP address of the sender if thesender is sending the request from a PC.

During the download or after the download but before storing ontodatabase 131, the video clip may be transcoded to an appropriate formatadequate for viewing on mobile phones. The transcoding may involvecompression, resizing, watermarking or any other digital data processingfor optimal streaming, maintenance, and transportability.

Video service provider 130 creates accounts for each phone numberprovided in the STM information entry form 200. These accounts storephone numbers and mobile phone carrier information, and may be usedlater as login credentials to use the STM service.

Video service provider 130 may further use the partner code to providecustom messages configured uniquely by content provider 120 to serve itsusers. Any other partner-based customization may be done together atthis step such as inserting an advertisement clip to the requested videoclip.

The STM text messaging system is responsible for sending text messagesto user 101 and friends 110 on their mobile phones 101 a and 110 a.According to one embodiment, the text messages contain a URL link forviewing the video clip. When user 101 or friend 110 clicks the URL link,the mobile phone's default browser is launched and the video clipindicated by the URL is automatically downloaded or streamed. User 101or friend 110 may be given an option to download or stream depending onthe current connection bandwidth, mobile device capabilities and/or themobile service network. An additional optional message may be sentcontaining login and account information created by video serviceprovider 130. In one embodiment, an advertisement or product informationmay be also sent if users agree to receive them. In another embodiment,users receive or view the advertisement or product information in orderto subscribe to the STM service at a subsidized fee or at no cost.

Video service provider 130 provides a video viewing experience to mobilephone users. In one embodiment, an individual video clip stored in videoservice provider 130 is referenced by a unique URL. In anotherembodiment, one or more video clips are grouped together and availableon a channel referenced by a unique URL. If a channel is referenced by aURL, the URL may be linked by default to the latest video clip uploadedto the channel. The owner of the channel—typically the user who createdthe channel for the first time—may authorize other users to have anaccess right and upload more video clips to the channel. The URL maydirect to a list of video clips, sorted and archived by the owner'spreference, such that the users can select a video clip for viewing fromthe list. After receiving a text message with a URL and clicking on theURL link, a user initiate communication with video service provider 130via the mobile carrier's wireless network. Upon receiving the URLrequest, video service provider 130 allows the user to download orstream the video clip or a group of video clips associated with the URL.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary process for providing an STM service,according to one embodiment. Content provider 120 embeds the STMinitiator into a Web page according to and in compliance with theagreement with video service provider 130 (402). A user visiting thecontent provider 120's Web page finds a video clip and wants to share itwith a friend (403). The embedded STM initiator provides a “send tomobile” button to initiate a request to use the STM service. Thereafter,the user is prompted by a Web-based entry form to provide informationincluding his/her phone number and the friend's phone number along withan optional message to send to the friend and other configurable option,such as willingness to receive advertising or subscribe to additionalcontent (404). The user completes the entry form and clicks on the“send” button in the entry form to submit the STM request (405). Uponreceiving the STM request, the video service provider 130 checks if therequested video clip is available on its database 131 (406). If thevideo clip is not available, the video clip is downloaded, transcodedand stored on the database 131 (407). Thereafter, video service provider130 sends a text message to the friend's phone number including a URLlink to the video clip (408). The friend clicks on the URL and views thevideo clip originally requested by the user.

An apparatus and method for dynamic streaming or downloading ofmultimedia files has been described with respect to specific example andsubsystems. It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artthat it is not limited to these specific examples or subsystems butextends to other embodiments as well.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:generating, by a computer, a data packet, the data packet comprising arecipient phone number, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated witha video, and a service provider identifier; and wherein the computerreceives a sender phone number; wherein the data packet is sent to acontent service provider; wherein the video is transcoded into a formatadequate for viewing on a mobile device associated with the recipientphone number; wherein, when the video is not stored at the contentservice provider, downloading a video related to the URL.
 2. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising sending atleast one text message to the recipient phone number, the at least onetext message comprising the video URL associated with the serviceprovider identifier.
 3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2,wherein the at least one text message comprises a first-time usermessage.
 4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, furthercomprising sending a confirmation text message to a sender phone numberupon receipt of a version of the data packet.
 5. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the computer receives atleast one of a send button, a message field, a content discretion ratingfield, content license information, and a subscribe to sender selector.6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein upon receipt of aversion of the data packet, the method further comprises determining amobile phone carrier servicing the recipient phone number.
 7. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein upon receipt of aversion of the data packet, the method further comprises determining amanufacturer and a model number of a mobile phone associated with therecipient phone number.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,wherein upon receipt of a version of the data packet, the method furthercomprises determining a version of operating system software of themobile phone associated with the recipient phone number.
 9. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising receiving arequest to retrieve the video URL, wherein the request is received atthe content service provider from the mobile phone associated with therecipient phone number.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1,further comprising providing a video clip associated with the video URLfrom a cached location when the cached location stores the video clip.11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having stored thereon aplurality of instructions, said plurality of instructions, when executedby a computer, cause the computer to: generate a data packet, the datapacket comprising a recipient phone number, a Uniform Resource Locator(URL) associated with a video, and a service provider identifier;wherein the computer receives a sender phone number; wherein the datapacket is sent to a content service provider; wherein the video istranscoded into a format adequate for viewing on a mobile deviceassociated with the recipient phone number; wherein, when the video isnot stored at the content service provider, downloading a video relatedto the URL.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11,having stored thereon additional instructions, the additionalinstructions, when executed by the computer, are configured to cause thecomputer to send a confirmation text message to a sender phone number.13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein theconfirmation text message is sent to a sender phone number upon receiptof a version of the data packet.
 14. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the video link messagecontains the video URL of a video clip.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 11, having stored thereon additionalinstructions, the additional instructions, when executed by thecomputer, are configured to cause the computer to determine a mobilephone carrier servicing the recipient phone number upon receipt of aversion of the data packet.
 16. The non-transitory computer-readablemedium of claim 11, having stored thereon additional instructions, theadditional instructions, when executed by the computer, are configuredto cause the computer to determine a manufacturer and a model number ofa mobile phone associated with the recipient phone number upon receiptof a version of the data packet.
 17. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 11, having stored thereon additionalinstructions, the additional instructions, when executed by thecomputer, are configured to cause the computer to determine a version ofoperating system software of a mobile phone associated with therecipient phone number upon receipt of a version of the data packet. 18.The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 11, having storedthereon additional instructions, the additional instructions, whenexecuted by the computer, are configured to cause the computer toreceive a request to retrieve the video URL, the request received at thecontent service provider from a recipient phone associated with therecipient phone number.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable mediumof claim 11, having stored thereon additional instructions, theadditional instructions, when executed by the computer, are configuredto cause the computer to provide a video clip associated with the videoURL from a cached location if the cached location stores the video clip.20. A system, comprising: a computer; and a content service provider;the computer configured to: generate a data packet, the data packetcomprising a recipient phone number, a Uniform Resource Locator (URL)associated with a video, and a service provider identifier; and whereinthe computer receives a sender phone number; wherein the data packet issent to the content service provider; wherein the video is transcodedinto a format adequate for viewing on a mobile device associated withthe recipient phone number; wherein, when the video is not stored at thecontent service provider, downloading a video related to the URL.